Over the last year, Air Miles has asked its 10-million active members to share stories of how the rewards program has played an important role in their lives. And they responded.
In the latest installment of the #AirMilesStories campaign, Air Miles launched a three-minute video that tells the tale of Christine and Stephanie, two mothers who met when both of their children were admitted to Sick Kids Hospital. It was their dream for Christine to be able to fly with her son, Colin, to visit Stephanie in Thunder Bay, and the video shows Air Miles making their wish come true by arranging the flight and surprising Stephanie’s family.
Produced by Air Miles and Notch, this is the first professionaly-shot video for the user-generated #AirMilesStories campaign since its inception last October, when it first asked members to share their stories through text, photos and video.
Air Miles created a trip giveaway to pull in about 5,600 entries, many of which are shared on a rotating basis on AirMiles.ca/Stories. Another contest in April 2014 brought the number of contributed stories to around 10,000 — more than double what Air Miles had expected when it launched the campaign, said Lorne Solway, associate vice-president, marketing at Air Miles.
The four-pronged campaign started with collecting stories through contests, then sharing them online, rotating it to show 40 at a time. Then Air Miles pushed the stories through its social channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The fourth step is what Air Miles called “completing a story” — selecting a story to highlight, and changing the lives of the contributors.
So how did Air Miles select which stories to share, never mind which to complete? Solway said it looks for authenticity, emotional engagement, a story that is celebratory or fun, that represents Canadians across the country and how it ties to the brand.
“We always want to map it out, can we deliver this as part of the brand promise?” said Solway. “Does it play off the fact that Air Miles helps you live life to the fullest?”
For this video, Air Miles is sticking with social rollout and eschewing TV, feeling broadcast would make the story feel too “commercialized.”
Air Miles encourages collectors to upload stories at any time and plans to create more videos through the year and into 2015.
